A. background
Partial List of Resolutions and Treaties shaping the UNDP Gender Equality Mandate
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- Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. General Assembly resolution 48/104 of 20 December 1993.
- Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace in the Twenty-first Century
- Security Council Resolution 1325 women security peace. (2000) Annex V UNDP 8-Point Agenda for Gender Equality in Crisis Prevention and Recovery
- 4. Build Peace with and for Women .
Partial List of Resolutions and Treaties shaping the UNDP Gender Equality Mandate
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/recommendations/recomm.htm
http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/spechr.htm
Annex V UNDP 8-Point Agenda for Gender Equality in Crisis Prevention and Recovery 1. Strengthen Women’s Security in Crisis. Work to end personal and institutional violence against women. Strengthen the rule of law. Increase the gender responsiveness of security institutions, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, and small arms reduction initiatives. 2. Advance Gender Justice. Increase women’s access to justice. Ensure the protection of women’s economic, social, political and cultural rights. Bring a gender perspective into transitional justice, constitutional, electoral, legislative, judicial, institutional and security sector reforms. 3. Expand Women’s Citizenship, Participation and Leadership. Build women’s skills and confidence. Support women’s representation in the social, political, and economic spheres. Develop women’s networks and institutions for conflict prevention, disaster risk reduction, peacebuilding, and post-conflict/post-disaster reconstruction. 4. Build Peace with and for Women. Ensure women’s meaningful participation in formal and informal peace processes. Bring a gender perspective to the design and implementation of peace missions and peace agreements. 5. Promote Gender Equality in Disaster Risk Reduction. Incorporate gender analysis in the assessment of disaster risks, impacts and needs. Address women’s unique needs and value women’s knowledge in disaster reduction and recovery policies, plans and programmes. Strengthen women’s networks and organizations to facilitate women’s active engagement. 6. Ensure Gender-Responsive Recovery. Infuse gender analysis into all post-conflict and post-disaster planning tools and processes. Promote social protection and sustainable livelihoods. Prioritize women’s needs in key sectors such as transportation, shelter and health care. 7. Transform Government to Deliver for Women. Build capacities and promote accountability within government institutions and processes. Engage women and men to foster gender-equitable relations. Ensure gender-sensitive resource mobilization, aid coordination, budgeting and funds allocation. 8. Develop Capacities for Social Change. Build the skills and the will of men and women to prevent and respond to violence; to reduce vulnerability to natural hazards; to achieve equitable post-crisis reconstruction; and to build social cohesion. Achievement of this Eight- Point Agenda will require: Incorporating gender equality priorities into advocacy and strategic planning in the development, humanitarian, peace, and security spheres; Strengthening human resources, policies and programmes to ensure responsiveness and accountability on gender issues; Building partnerships to maximize impact on gender priorities; Developing gender-responsive funding mechanisms and resource mobilization strategies; Supporting data collection that counts women, counts what women value, and values what women count; and Advancing intellectual leadership, knowledge management, monitoring and evaluation on gender and CPR issue 1 Quoted in DFID 2007. Gender Equality Action Plan 2007-2009: making faster progress to gender equality. 2 Gender equality results frameworks to complement the SP development and institutional results by providing detailed outcomes and indicators are being developed alongside the SP results frameworks. They will be presented at the annual session of the Executive Board in June 2008. 3 The key contextual documents for the purposes of the UNDP Gender Equality Strategy are the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (1979), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA) (1995), Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security (SCR 1325) (2000), and the Millennium Declaration (2000). More recently, the United Nations Chief Executives’ Board for Coordination (CEB) has adopted a System-Wide Gender Mainstreaming Policy and Strategy (2006). Each of these, together with the overall United Nations reform process and the TCPR process, inform the rationale and direction of this strategy. 4 The Human Development Concept. www.undp.org/hd 5 This term is central to the human development paradigm, and refers to the range of things that men and women can do or be in life. The most basic capabilities for human development are to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to participate in the life of the community. Without these, many choices are simply not available, and many opportunities in life remain inaccessible. 6 Also important here is the Declaration on the ending of violence against Women (DEVAW) (1993). CEDAW did not explicitly include GBV, a gap that was rectified by DEVAW, which clearly defined GBV as a form of discrimination, thus bringing it unambiguously within the purview of CEDAW. See also Box 3 and Annex I. 7 These are: trafficking and the exploitation of prostitution; public and political life; international affairs; nationality; education; employment; health care; economic and social life; rural women; equality before the law; equality in marriage and family life. 8 Mission Statement. Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. United Nations 1995. p. 17. 9Ibid. 10 For example: the persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women; ending gender-based violence (GBV); the effects of armed or other kinds of conflict on women; inequality in economic structures and policies in all forms of productive activities and in access to resources; inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and decision-making at all levels; lack of respect for and inadequate promotion and protection of the human rights of women; and gender inequalities in the management of natural resources and in the safeguarding of the environment. 11 Beijing PFA, paragraphs 79 education; 105 health; 123 violence against women; 141 conflict; 189 power and decision-making; 202 institutional mechanisms; 229 human rights; 238 media; 252 management of natural resources; 273 children and youth. . The methodology for gender mainstreaming was elaborated and defined by ECOSOC shortly afterwards. The full definition is provided in Annex I. 12 Including, for example, the Millennium Project report on Education and Gender (2005), and in the UK Department for International Development (DFID) Gender Equality Action Plan 2007-2009. 13 Even though there is stronger guidance in CEDAW and the Beijing PFA on gender-sensitive development standards in disaster, peace and security contexts, SCR1325 has the important effect of reinforcing the framework for partnership among development, peace and security and humanitarian entities on these issues. 14 Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters. Extract from the Final Report of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction, Hyogo, Japan, January 2005. (A/CONF.206/6) 15 Outcome Report of the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly of September 2005 (MDG+5). A/59/HLPM/CRP.1. paragraph 95 16 Outcome document of the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly of September 2005 . A/59/HLPM/CRP.1 paragraph 36. 17 Including the. Report of the High Level Panel on Coherence, 20 November 2006, Taking action:achieving gender equality and empowering women Report of the MDG Task Force on Education and Gender Equality, the Outcomes Document 2005; and others. 18 UNDP. January 2006. Evaluation of Gender Mainstreaming in UNDP. p. iii 19 The complete 8PA is attached as Annex V. 20 Gender Thematic Trust Fund (GTTF) Report 2006. 21 Millennium Project. Report on Education and Gender Equality. p.29. 22 Alternatively, managers may ensure that gender equality is fully incorporated into the office action plan and sectoral plans. In accordance with the achievement standards of the System-wide Policy and Strategy on Gender Mainstreaming (CEB 2006), these action plans should include: a clear statement in support of gender equality; between one third and one half of results statements integrate the production of gender equality, and that all data are disaggregated by sex, or specific reasons for not doing so are noted; 23 As a general rule, all statistical information used for socio-economic policy and planning should be disaggregated by age and sex at a minimum. However, not all statistical information relevant to gender issues can be disaggregated by sex. For example data on maternal mortality is by definition not susceptible to disaggregation (only women can be mothers), but is nonetheless very important for gender-sensitive policy making, and is thus “gender-relevant information”. The full term for the such data is “sex-disaggregated and gender-relevant data and statistics”, often referred to as “gender statistics”. 24 SP paragraph 133 (b). 25 Chief Executive Board for Coordination (CEB). System-wide Policy and Strategy on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. May 2006 and Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review of Operational Activities for Development of the United Nations System A/C.2/62/L.4. December 2007. Paragraphs 41-43 26 In particular, the Resident Coordinator will ensure that all strategy documents include clear statements of support for gender equality in their introductory sections, and between one third and one half of the results statemtns integrate the promotion of gender equality, in accordance with the System-wide Policy and Strategy on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. 27 UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and UNIFEM: A Way Forward for Strengthening Coordinated Support for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. UNDGO. 2007 28 A/61/122/Add.1 In-depth study on all forms of violence against women. Report of the Secretary-General. 6 July 2006 29There are important exceptions to this general statement. See specific reference to the economic and social costs of GBV in Morrison, A, Ellsberg M and Bott, S. (June 2005), Preventing and Responding to Gender-Based Violence in Middle and Low-Income Countries: A Global Review and Analysis. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 3618.: the SG’s report on VAW; and the following statement from the UNFPA website. “The cost (of GBV) to countries is high as well: Increased health care expenditures; demands on courts, police and schools; and losses in educational achievement and productivity. In Chile, domestic violence cost women $1.56 billion in lost earnings in 1996, more than 2 per cent of the country's GDP. In India, one survey showed women lost an average of seven working days after an incident of violence. Domestic violence constitutes the single biggest health risk to Australian women of reproductive age, resulting in economic losses of about $6.3 billion a year. In the United States, the figure adds up to some $12.6 billion annually. International financial institutions have also begun to take note. The Inter-American Development Bank, for example, is addressing GBV through its lending portfolios.” 30 “Gender-based violence and all forms of sexual harassment and exploitation … are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person, and must be eliminated. This can be achieved by legal measures and through national action and international cooperation in such fields as economic and social development, education, safe maternity and health care, and social support.” Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, 12 July 1993 . A/CONF.157/23. Paragraph 17. 31 Furthermore, in supporting efforts that address the economic security needs of victims/survivors of GBV, UNDP could support and highlight women’s access to economic assets and opportunities and ensure that women have equal share to the post-reconstruction programme. Through an integrated and coordinated approach, UNDP could mobilize the entire UN system on the ground to prevent, respond and reduce sexual violence, with a joint approach in planning, advocacy and action. The 8PA aims to strengthen women’s access to justice by brining a gender perspective in efforts to strengthen the criminal justice system and in particular security sector reform processes. Strategies to eradicate GBV can be drawn from the variety of promising practices implemented around the world. 32 In many towns hit by the Indian Ocean Tsunami, women died in far greater proportion than men , for reasons associated with their relatively low social status (restrictive clothing, inability to run, climb trees or swim, trapped within houses, etc). The resulting gender imbalance raised a variety of concerns for men who had to take up new roles in child care and it also created additional burden for the handful of women survivors in towns severely devastated by the Tsunami. 33 Any gender analysis that may be provided the diagnostic section is typically not reflected in the policy prioritization, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation sections, and therefore impossible to implement. 34 Here UNDP’s Gender Needs Assessment (GNA) has potential. This is a costing tool that has been developed to support governments to estimate the budgetary implications of a broad range of gender-responsive policy priorities, and to clarify their resource needs in this area to donors. It is currently being tested in RBA and RBAP. 35 Women’s unpaid work may take place within the household or in family productive activities in the agricultural and commercial sectors, both formal and informal. This work compensates families for limited social service delivery and contributes indirectly to national productivity and growth by enabling current workers to be refreshed and return to work each day at minimum cost to employers or the state, and by socializing the next generation of workers. 36 Including consensus around the MDGs in 2000, the Paris Declaration in 2005, and the introduction of poverty reduction strategies and sector-wide approaches in the 1990s, 37 Such as general budget support, performance oriented-budgeting and multi-year budgeting 38 Not least in the above-referenced MDG Three Report, and in annual Human Development Reports, 39 As discussed in more detail under Democratic Governance below 40 For example, generally improved aggregate indicators for middle income countries often mask failures in social service delivery at sub-state levels, and growing disparities between rich and poor. However ability to address this shortcoming is limited in part because women’s predominant role in the care of their families (sometimes called “the care economy”), and consequently as social service consumers, is rarely factored into analysis. There is need therefore not only for differentiated analyses of middle income, low income and least-developed countries, and of the various social groupings within these countries, but also for crystal-clear understanding of the interplay between social services, economic growth and gender relations. 41 UN Security Council Resolution 1308 (2000) 42 See also the discussion of gender parity in Section VIII of this strategy. 43 Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery. Bureau Strategy 2007-2011. January 2007 44 The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism has channeled eighty-five percent of its resources to emerging economies, such as Brazil, India and China, which have highly developed infrastructures and absorptive capacity. While other mechanisms, such as the MDG Carbon Fund, may have more potential to respond to women’s needs and to advance gender-equitable results they lack the operational guidelines and capacity to do so. This is also true of multilateral agreements such as the Montreal Protocol, trade agreements and wildlife agreements, which tend to be poorly linked with local interests. Women’s views are rarely sought or incorporated into the negotiations of such agreements, which therefore tend to be dominated by men’s priorities. 45 While each focus area may be addressed separately via projects, the portal also provides the opportunity to flag and explore the transversal linkages between the focus areas, ensuring a holistic approach to knowledge management. 46 UNDP Gender Parity Report 2007, p. 13 47 UNDP Gender Parity Report 2007, p. 16 48 UNDP Gender Parity Report 2007, p. 18 49 With regard to recruitment, UNDP will enhance its selection procedures to ensure that all new staff and consultants possess the basic understanding, skill and experience required to work in a gender-sensitive manner. This means that lack of these attributes is sufficient reason to reject an applicant for either a staff post or consultancy. 50 Drawing on and updating the previous extensive capacity and needs assessment completed in 2001. 51 Formal definition of “capacity development” 52 CIDA 2005. Framework for the Assessment of Gender Equality Results: 53 See Section III of this strategy document. 54 For example: OECD 2007. Gender Equality and Aid Delivery: what has changed in development co-operation agencies since 1999?. p.8. 55 In 1997 research indicated that less than two percent of UNDP’s core resources were being allocated to gender equality, which was then one of five UNDP Focus Areas. As a result the Administrator’s requested managers to allocate twenty percent of thematic funds to gender equality (Direct Line 11), a requirement that was discontinued in 2000. 56Millennium Project 2005. Taking Action: achieving gender equality and empowering women. UNDG. New York p. 2. 57 Millennium Project 2005. Taking Action: achieving gender equality and empowering women. UNDG. New York pp. 33-35 and Box 1.1 p. 29. UNDP Gender Equality Strategy Page of Download 256.46 Kb. Share with your friends:
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